I recently read a great quote that said “You will only be remembered for one of two things: the problems you solve or the ones you create.”
So, how will you be remembered? Will you be remembered as a trainer who not only had the ability to identify problems, but had the courage, passion and imagination to solve them? Will you be remembered as a trainer who taught your officers to be problem solvers, or as someone who simply taught techniques as part of the mandated curriculum? Will you be remembered as someone who was always looking to fix the blame, or always looking to fix the problem? Will you be remembered as a problem identifier, or as a problem solver?
The problems might be with the current curriculum, with equipment, with facilities, with budgets, with time allotted for training, with personnel resources to deliver training, with the level of certification and education of your trainers, or a variety of other issues.
The important thing here is that if you have identified a problem, then before you go to the boss with the problem identify a number of possible solutions. Please do not immediately default to playing the ‘liability card’. After a while administrators get tired of trainers always saying “This is a liability issue.” It may well be a liability or risk management issue the question is what are you going to do to solve the problem.
The solutions usually take a little imagination and a little creativity. What can be helpful is to reach out to other people either within your agency or from other agencies for ideas. Chances are that if you are having this problem then someone else likely had the same problem and came up with a solution. This is one of the great values of belonging to organizations like ILEETA reading the Force Science Newsletters , reading books like W.I.N. Critical Issues in Training and Leading Warriors and W.I.N. 2 Insights Into Training and Leading Warriors and attending events like the Legacy of Excellence Conference.
Take care.
Brian Willis
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